Several human rights and policy organizations say that the failure to count victims of South Sudan’s conflict – in particular the number of war dead – is a ‘scandal’ and ‘dishonor’.

One organization is estimating that the total number of dead is between 50,000 and 100,000 but points out that no one is keeping a more accurate tally.

Neither of the warring parties in the country appear to keep a tally of their losses in terms of dead and wounded. The United Nations, which has attempted to track casualties in other countries such as Syria, has also been silent.

And media in South Sudan almost never interview war widows, war-orphaned children, or other grieving family members. Interviews with wounded soldiers and civilians are also rare.

Instead, the victims are a process of “appalling dehumanization,” according to a researcher for conflict think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG), Casie Copeland.

The research group said the failure to count the dead dishonours the victims and is part of a lack of effort to end the war.

“Counting the dead goes beyond understanding the scale of this devastating war, it honours those who have been lost and is a minimum form of respect to the tens of thousands of South Sudanese who have been killed,” said Copeland.

Skye Wheeler, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, argues that giving more attention to the victims of the conflict will help pressure both warring sides to end violent abuses.

“Alongside more vigorous reporting on human rights abuses, public estimates would have shed light on the violence and the extent of abuse, and helped put pressure on both sides to end abusive tactics,” she said.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it is “impossible to provide a comprehensive and independently verifiable number,” pointing to a number of factors including its lack of presence everywhere in the country.

But Copeland remarked, “It's shocking that in 2014, in a country with one of the largest UN peacekeeping missions in the world, tens of thousands of people can be killed and no one can even begin to confirm the death toll.”

“Surely more can be done to understand whether the figure is closer to 50,000 or 100,000?”

Amid silence from the United Nations, the armed groups, and other actors, a group of South Sudanese civil society groups has begun a project to name those lost in the war.

The “Naming Those We Lost” project tries to name the dead and so far has collected a list of around a thousand names.

“It's a vital step to recognizing the collective loss,” said project organizer Anyieth D'Awol. “The lack of justice, accountability and acknowledgement of losses suffered by people has fuelled the current conflict.”